new bird acting very odd

[i blame history]

again, this is long, but hopefully the details help.

my new bird, sam, seems to be acting very strange. i have only had nim (or her) since monday. he is very young, with plenty of stripes on his forehead. i think he is recessive pied, from my research (mostly white, light gray splotches on his wings, light blue randomly on his back and a bit on his lower belly).
he is eating fine, as i have seen him in one of the two food dishes several times. i am feeding a mix of parakeet seed and small pellets.
my other bird, harvey, seems to be acting as he always has.
since i have not had sam for long, i can not say what normal behavior is for him, but i do think he is a bit strange. first, he had his wings clipped before i bought him. i clip harveys wings as well, and he is fine: he can fly short distances and get to his cage, so he can hove safely on his own. sam, however, can fly pretty well.... but landing is where we run in to problems. he crashes. he hits walls, the side of the cage, tables.... he can NOT land smoothly on anything. harvey has never had this problem, even with his wings clipped. its almost like sam cannot see, but he can see my finger in front of him, etc. by the way, like harvey, i had him comfortable with my finger on day one. i do not know why both of my birds were tamed so quickly and easily. sam is very confortable in and out of his cage, gets on my finger fairly easily, and never freaks out.
i am worried about him hurting himself when he crashes/lands. he flies fine, much like harvey. he is very vocal when he is apart from harvey (it is like they are playing marco polo to find each other) and he is everemely loving... he seems to LOVE being with me, on me, on my shoulder... at first, i thought i had a biter, but i realized he was opening his beak and giving me extremely light nibbles, almost like kisses... he will do it to my cheek, and i swear it is the sweetest thing ever!
sam also puffs himself up quite a bit. when i first got him, he was just ruffling his feathers, but now i look at him and more often than not, he is puffy. his feet were also extremely warm on monday, but since them him and harvey seem to be the same fairly cool temperature.
i have done some research on scaly face because i was concerned by the look of his beak. his facial feathers/cere/face area in general does not appear abnormal, no dry skin at all, no missing feathers, but his actual beak looks like it has a V-shaped line if dryness that kind of goes from one side to the other. my apologies, i have been trying to get pictures all night, and he will not cooperate and my camera will flat out NOT take a good picture. it almost looks like wear that could be brought on by chewing.

anyways, this is the one thing that really freaked me out. just a bit ago, i was watching sam and harvey preen all over each other. now, this could be completely normal, as i have never seen this part of either of my birds before, so i am going to ask: is it normal for birds to appear fully feathered, but have absolutely no feathers under their chin when their head is tilted back? imagine standing up straight, tilting your head clear back to look straight up at the sky: the spot on your body that is equivalent to the area on sam that i am refering to would be from your collar bone to your chin. when his head is down, or in any other position, he does not appear to be missing ANY feathers--that is why i was so startled! i also saw the underside of his lower beak, where it attaches to his body, and it looked very strange (mainly because i had never seen that area before).

well, i need to end this, i know it is long. i just wonder if i am worrying myself to death and in turn making myself think something is wrong when there is nothing to be worried about, or if i should really be concerned. the nearest avian vet, located from the use of 'that one website' with the locator (heh very specific) is over an hour away from me. i may not have much money, but if i need to spend a bit of money for a good reason, i am able to. i am just more concerned that being in the car for that long would be extremely stressful, especially due to the fact that it is very hot outside and the air conditioner in the car has terrible mood swings, apparently.

i can continue to try to get decent pictures. it just might take some time. thanks guys :o

[pal0m1n0]

When I bought Pepper home, it seemed apparent that she had not spent a lot of time flying outside the confines of a cage. When I first let her out, she was flying into walls and making awkward and bad landings. I don't remember how long it took for her to master the flying and landing but it did happen. I suspect that the birds get to know the area that they are living in and can then maneuver easily thoughout. If one of my birds accidently ends up flying upstairs, they seem lost and unsure of what to do. We have a large open family room/ kitchen area and mostly they stick to that with some forays out into the hall. Rarely they will fly into the living room and sit for a spell on top of the venitian blinds. Also, they mostly avoid the actual kitchen area, I kept shooing them out of that area. They seem to have it figured out that they are not to land on my picture frames, the table and the top of my fridge. Clever birds :) I have a few play areas and a couple of other spots that I let them explore.

But I digressed, the flying may be a lack of practice and will work itself out. Don't know about the other stuff though.

[i blame history]

ah, thanks! i never thought of that! you seem right, though, sam more than likely has not had much time to fly about on his own outside a cage, and it is probably still a bit awkward for him.

[i blame history]

oh man, i was finally able to get pictures! sam is a photogenic little guy (or girl, i think i might be seeing some color change).
of course with these three there were about 20 blurry shots, but i think these will do. they are slightly large to show detail... they do a better job at describing the beak than i did!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/iblamehistory/s3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/iblamehistory/s2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v650/iblamehistory/s1.jpg

[Budgiekin]

VERY nice pictures! Sam IS very photogenic; look at those sweet little eyes!!! My guess is that Sam is a boy. His beak looks completely normal. Remember that budgie beaks flake much like our skin does to shed old layers and to bring out new ones. I wouldn't be concerned about that "line of dryness".

[i blame history]

VERY nice pictures! Sam IS very photogenic; look at those sweet little eyes!!! My guess is that Sam is a boy. His beak looks completely normal. Remember that budgie beaks flake much like our skin does to shed old layers and to bring out new ones. I wouldn't be concerned about that "line of dryness".

good! see, i figured beak strangeness=scaly face/mite problems. i had no idea that they were supposed to flake like that.

i picked the name sam because it is pretty much gender neutral... samuel or samantha, i can go either way. with harvey, he still looks like a boy, but i am still crossing my fingers.